Urgent Care :: Update

[iloveny83]

I slept in my living room last night just to be able to check on Squashi every now and then and it seems as if she's doing better. She's actually moving around but the eyes are still shut. Should i try the cod liver oil remedy until i am able to go to the vet?[/b]

[octpusgirl8]

I'm glad to see that Squashi's hanging in there! The cod liver oil is for a vitamin deficiency, it sounds more likely that your turtle is sick. There is such a thing as too much vitamin A, i'm not sure if you can OD your turtle on it just by applying it topically though. If there's a pet store nearby, you could pick up some zoomed reptile eye drops, they're safe to use even as a precautionary measure so they might make your turtle more comfortable at least. The important thing here is going to be a vet visit, i'm sorry to say.

[SpotsMama]

The symptoms of RI are: lethargy (tired, wanting to bask a lot), poor appetite, swollen eyes, breathing with the mouth open or yawning a lot, mucus around the nose or mouth, swimming lopsided or difficulty submerging.

A turtle with RI won't necessarily display all these symptoms but if he/she has several, then it's probably RI. It's common for turtles to show symptoms then seem to get better temporarily but then go downhill again.

Zoo Med turtle eye drops would be soothing to Squashi's eyes but they won't help with the underlying disease. The only thing to do for the disease is get to the vet ASAP.

When you see the vet, here's a standard caution. If the vet offers to give a vitamin A shot, first make sure the vet is positive your turtle really needs vitamin A and then discuss other alternatives to shots with the vet like eye drops with vitamin A, cod liver oil or food supplements. Several turtles have recently had very bad reactions to vitamin A shots and I think it's best that if vitamin A is needed (and often it's not) the safer methods be used instead.